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Reddick out of A's lineup with tooth issue

Reddick out of A's lineup with tooth issue

Josh Reddick

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KANSAS CITY -- Josh Reddick is down a tooth, and it meant the A's were down a middle-of-the-order hitter for Wednesday night's game against the Royals.

The Oakland outfielder had a tooth extracted on Monday, but the recovery hasn't gone as planned, and Reddick was out of the lineup for the middle game at Kauffman Stadium. Reddick's been dealing with the oral issue all season, which has forced him to wear a mouthguard.

"I had to go get it checked out [Wednesday] because the pain was pretty bad," Reddick said after the A's 3-2 loss. "The dentist [in Kansas City] said it wasn't healing right and the blood wasn't forming like it should be. We had to go in there and re-clean it out, and I had to numb it up again and put another temporary thing in there that's going to eventually dissolve, and hopefully keep the pain away."

"Home," by the way, is Georgia. Reddick spent the team's off-day on Monday flying to see his own dentist in the Peach State, saying he trusts him more than anyone.

Manager Bob Melvin said, though, that Wednesday's day off could be a bit of a blessing in disguise. Reddick has hit just .134 since July 29, and Melvin said it's been difficult to find days off for him.

"When I was writing out the lineup, I though that this actually might be a good thing for him," Melvin said. "It's hard to take him out, and really his off-days -- other than a couple full off-days -- have been DH days. He's not 6-3, 235. He's a slight guy [6-2, 180] and plays very hard and goes out there on the defensive end with as much tenacity as on the offensive end. It's good to get days off every now and then, it's just difficult for us to give him a day off because he means so much to the lineup."

Reddick said he is fine to play in Thursday's series finale, but added that he won't be sporting his trademark mouthguard anymore.

Jonny Gomes started in place of Reddick in right field on Wednesday and went 0-for-3.